BanquetLogic User Guide

Complete feature overview and how to use the app

1. Overview

BanquetLogic is an employee scheduler for banquet and event staffing. You manage employees by labor pool (e.g. Servers, Cashiers, Housemen), define events with dates, times, guest counts, and labor requirements, then generate and edit a weekly schedule. The app respects seniority, preferences, availability, and your chosen assignment style. Data is stored in your browser; export or back up regularly if you need to keep a copy.

2. Employees

Manage staff by labor pool. Each employee belongs to one pool and has seniority within that pool. Scheduling rules and seniority apply within each pool.

Labor pool selector

At the top of the Employees tab, use the pool selector to filter the list by labor pool or view all employees.

Add employee (manual)

• Name — Required.
• Labor Pool — Required. Choose the role (e.g. Servers, Cashiers, Housemen). Pools are defined in Settings → Labor Pools.
• Type — Full-time (FT) or part-time (PT). Used for assignment rules (e.g. balanced coverage) and reporting.
• Seniority — Number used for shift assignment order (lower number = higher seniority). Can be auto-filled when adding multiple people in the same pool.
• Pref — AM, PM, or No Pref. Shift preference used when generating schedules.
• Optional: Email (used when emailing schedules), Phone, Employee ID, Hire Date, Birthday, Notes, Max days per week (cap on how many days the employee can be scheduled in a week).

Click Add Employee to save. New employees appear in the table below.

Import Seniority List

You can add or replace employees in bulk via Import Seniority List (collapsible section).

• Upload CSV — Choose a file with columns: Name, Type (FT/PT), Seniority, Preference (AM/PM or blank). Header row optional.
• Paste Text — Paste tab- or comma-separated lines in the same format.
• Replace — Removes all existing employees and imports the list (seniority can be rebalanced).
• Merge — Adds to existing employees and rebalances seniority within each pool.

Use Sample CSV to download a template and Help for format details. Export your current list first (Export → basic or full) as a backup.

Export and bulk actions

• Export (basic / full) — Download the employee list as CSV (full includes optional fields).
• Select one or more employees with the checkboxes. Then use:
  • Retire — Mark selected as retired (they stay in the list but are no longer scheduled).
  • Change pool — Move selected to another labor pool.
  • Delete — Permanently remove selected employees (can be undone immediately after).
  • Clear — Deselect all.
• Undo — Reverses the last bulk action (e.g. retire or delete) if shown.

Search and filters

Search by name, email, phone, pool, or type. You can also:

• Show retired — Include retired employees in the list.
• Compact — Hide the Phone column to save space.
• Status — Filter by All, Available, Sick, Vacation, Unpaid, or Off (requested off).

Table columns are sortable by name, pool, seniority, or type (click the column header).

Employee row actions

• Vacation — Mark the employee as on vacation for the whole week (no assignments that week).
• Day Prefs — Set which days the employee prefers to work or prefers off. Used when generating schedules; preferences only, they can still be scheduled any day if needed.
• Time Off — Add time-off blocks: Request Off, Vacation, Sick, Unpaid, or Floating Holiday, with start and end date. The generator avoids assigning shifts during those times.
• Sick — Checkbox to mark the employee as sick (excluded from assignment for that period).
• Info — View or edit the employee’s details (name, pool, type, seniority, email, phone, employee ID, hire date, birthday, notes, max days, etc.).
• Lock row — When the schedule is unlocked, you can lock an employee’s row so their shifts are not changed by Generate or Regenerate.
• Retire — Retire the employee. They stay in the list but are no longer scheduled.

3. Events

Events are the shifts you need to staff. Each event has a date, time, guest count, service type, and labor pool requirements. Staffing recommendations are based on event types and ratios set in Settings.

Add event

• Date, Start time, End time — Required. Event window; affects recommended staff.
• Service type — Required. e.g. Plated Service, Buffet. Defined in Settings → Event Types; each type has a “1 server per X guests” ratio.
• Status — Confirmed, Tentative, or Cancelled.
• Event name — Optional label (e.g. “Smith Wedding”, “Conference A”).
• Guests — Guest count. Used with service type to recommend server and other counts.
• Labor pool requirements — Which pools are needed and how many (e.g. 1 Cashier, 2 Housemen). Add or remove rows as needed.
• Cash Bar — When enabled, set Cash bar start and end time. The schedule shows a non-binding cashier recommendation for this event.
• Staff Needed (legacy) — Optional override for total staff if you don’t rely only on pool requirements.
• Repeat (when adding) — Optionally repeat the event: Weekly, on selected days of the week, until a date or for a number of times.
• Templates — Choose a saved template to fill the form, or save the current form as a template for reuse.

Click Add Event to save. Events appear in the table; you can Edit, Duplicate, or Delete from there. If event times overlap in a way the app detects, a conflict banner may appear (you can dismiss it).

Events view and filters

• List / Week view — Switch between a list of events and a week-at-a-glance view. In Week view, use Prev/Next to change the week.
• Search — Filter by event name or service.
• Date — All dates, This week, or Next week.
• Service — Filter by service type.

Use Export / more → Export events CSV to download events. You can select multiple events and Delete selected.

4. Schedule

The Schedule tab shows a weekly grid. You generate assignments from events and employees, then optionally edit, lock, export, or email.

View and week

• Filters — Filter by labor Pool or by a single Employee (to see one person’s week). Affects only what you see on screen, not data.
• Prev / Next — Move between weeks.
• Week — Use the date picker to jump to a specific week.

Actions

• Generate — Build the schedule for the current week from events and employees using your assignment style, seniority, and availability. Fills empty slots; does not remove existing assignments unless you regenerate. Locked shifts and locked rows are left unchanged.
• Regenerate — Clear unlocked shifts and regenerate the whole week from scratch. Locked shifts and locked rows are kept.
• Unlock / Lock Schedule — When unlocked, you can click cells to assign or change employees and use drag to move or swap. When locked, the grid is read-only to avoid accidental changes.
• Copy to next week — Copy the current week’s schedule to the following week (convenient for similar weeks).
• Email Schedules — Open your email client with one message per employee who has shifts and a valid email address. You send each email yourself; no employee or schedule data is sent automatically.
• Generation Rules — Open a summary of how the schedule is built: assignment style, seniority, rest between shifts, and how preferences are applied.
• Conflicts — If shown after generation, lists staffing shortages or issues (e.g. not enough staff for an event). Use it to decide whether to add staff, reduce requirements, or assign manually.
• Export CSV — Download the schedule as a CSV file.
• Apply Recommendations — Assign recommended Cashiers or Housemen for the week in seniority order. Choose the role in the modal; you can undo immediately after.
• Undo — Reverses the last schedule action (e.g. apply recommendations) when available.

Grid and cell actions

Click a cell to assign an employee to that event or to enter time off (e.g. sick, vacation, or a custom time range). You can drag to move a shift to another employee or to swap two employees’ shifts. The app respects seniority, preferences, and availability when you generate. You can lock an employee’s row so their assignments are not changed by Generate or Regenerate. Click a generated shift that shows an info icon to see Why this employee? — an explanation of why that person was chosen and an option to compare with another employee.

Below the grid, the Estimated labor cost panel shows a planning estimate by pool for the week (based on default wages in Labor Pools; not payroll). You can hide or show this panel.

5. Audit Log

The Audit Log (under the “More” tabs) records actions such as employee added/retired/edited, event added/updated/duplicated, schedule generated, schedule emailed, lock/unlock, settings changed, data imported, and overrides (e.g. lower-seniority assignment).

• Filters — Employee name, Action type (all, employee changes, event changes, schedule/shifts, lock/unlock, other), From date, To date, and Search in details (old/new values). Click Filter to apply; Clear filter to reset.
• Compact — Use a compact layout for entries.
• Sort — Newest first or Oldest first.
• Export CSV — Download the audit log as CSV.

Audit log size is capped (e.g. 500, 1000, or 2000 entries) in Settings; older entries are dropped.

6. Settings

Scheduling

Duplicate employee names — When adding or editing an employee, if another already has the same name: Warn (ask to continue) or Block (disallow).

Shift Assignment Style

Controls how shifts are assigned when you click Generate:

• Strict Seniority — Higher seniority (lower number) always gets first choice. Preferences only when they don’t conflict with seniority.
• Seniority + Balanced Coverage — Seniority is prioritized but shifts are balanced across FT/PT so one group doesn’t get everything.
• Fair Distribution — Shifts spread as evenly as possible; seniority is only a tie-breaker when hours are equal.

Changes apply to future generations only; existing shifts are not changed.

Staffing ratios (recommendations only)

These drive suggested staff counts only; they do not force assignments.

• Servers — Uses the “1 server per X guests” value from each Event Type. Edit in Event Types below.
• Cashiers — 1 cashier per X guests (e.g. 150).
• Housemen — Either “1 houseman per X guests” or “Flat: N per event”.

Schedule rules

Affects generation and conflict checks:

• Minimum rest between shifts — 6, 8, or 10 hours. The generator ensures at least this much rest between an employee’s shifts.
• Overtime threshold — Hours per week after which overtime is considered (e.g. 40).
• Max regular hours per day — Hours per day before OT (e.g. 8).

Display & behavior

• Week starts on — Monday or Sunday.
• Theme — Light, Dark, or System.
• Date format — MM/DD/YYYY or DD/MM/YYYY.
• Default tab on load — Which tab opens when you load the app.
• Audit log cap (entries) — 500, 1,000, or 2,000. Older entries are removed when the cap is reached.
• Confirm destructive actions — When on, actions like delete or clear all ask for confirmation; when off, they run without confirmation.

Labor Pools

Create and edit pools (e.g. Servers, Cashiers, Housemen). For each pool you can set:

• Name, default hourly wage (for labor cost estimate), whether the pool can be scheduled, and whether it appears in event requirements.

Each employee is assigned to one pool. Seniority is tracked separately within each pool.

Event Types

Define event types (e.g. Plated Service, Buffet, Conference) and the “1 server per ___ guests” ratio for each. You can mark types active or inactive. Inactive types are hidden when creating events but existing events still display correctly.

Data Management

• Export Data — Download all app data (employees, events, schedules, settings) as a JSON file.
• Export (no audit) — Same as above but excludes the audit log (smaller file).
• Import — Replace everything in the app with a previously exported JSON file.
• Create backup now — Create a manual backup (stored in the app).
• Restore — Restore from an automatic or manual backup (list of backups with option to export a backup to file).

Import replaces all current data. Restore uses backups saved automatically or ones you created.

Clear all data

Resets the app to a completely fresh state: all employees, events, schedules (all weeks), audit log, and assignment explanations are removed. Settings are restored to defaults. This cannot be undone.

7. Support & Contact

Use the Support / Contact tab (under “More”) to send a message: choose a category (Bug report, Feature suggestion, Question, or Other), enter a subject and message, then click Send message. Your message opens in your email client; only what you type is sent. No employee or schedule data is included. You can also email directly at the address shown there.

8. General & Header

• Language — Switch the app language: English, Français, or Español.
• Toggle Dark Mode — Switch between light and dark theme. Your preference is remembered (or follow system via Settings → Theme).
• Print / Save PDF — Use the Print dropdown to choose “All Pools” or a single pool, then click Print / Save PDF. Schedules are grouped and labeled by labor pool in the PDF.
• Skip to main content — Accessibility link to jump to the main tabs.
• User Guide — In the Support tab, a link to open this guide in a new tab. Use your browser’s Print → Save as PDF to download a copy.

BanquetLogic User Guide. Data is stored in your browser; export or back up regularly if you need to keep a copy.